This was my second attempt at sketching my sister’s house. This time I managed to include the big living room window. I think the row of houses used to be shops at one time.
Sun-26-Jul-2026
123-3569 – Thistle cottage 2
UskAtHome
121-3529 – Sketching from the sick bed
This was sketched from the couch where I sat most of the day feeling somewhat unwell and certainly short of energy. This palm tree has appeared in many of my sketches (see Sketch No.88 from 2016 for example) – it’s huge now. I used my Mont Marte watercolour markers to start this – woah they are bright! By the way I was feeling a lot better the next day and went out to sketch all day!
Sat-20-Jun-2026
121-3526 – Who needs a cat bed
I had to rush this sketch a bit. Captain Haddock loves to sleep on this rather chewed old pizza box – so who needs a cat bed? Having old pizza boxes (plus cardboard boxes and bits of paper he has picked out of the bin to play with) laying around the house, doesn’t do that well for the ambiance though!
Mon-15-Jun-2026
121-3521 – Quiet evening
I sketched this at the end of a quiet day having finished the assignment I’ve been working on. I just sketched the foot stool with a blanket on it – which of course was what was in front of me.
Tue-9-Jun-2026
120-3504 – Corner of the room
So many of my “evening” or “I can’t get out of the house during day (due to the heat and work)” sketches, have been objects. So I thought this with one I would go back to an interior sketch. Plus I went back to using my Lamy. My Sailor pen is great for many (almost all) my sketching subjects, but is best for urban sketches and figure drawing.
Thu-28-May-2026
118-3459 – Captain Haddock
This painting was done after a fairly long gap between sketches – although the gap was filled with finishing off other partly done drawings. This is our cat sitting in his favourite spot in the evening. I have drawn him multiple times, but in this attempt I tried to keep the colours really simple and faded those in the background to make him stand out.
Fri-17-Apr-2026
116-3407 – Repetition meditation therapy
Drawing the same thing over and over again is therapeutic, which is appropriate because as I sketched this, I was watching the third season of “Shrinking”.
Thu-26-Feb-2026
112-3320 – Christmas Day-eve debris
We had our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve as we have our big family gathering (out of town) on the 25th. We spent most of the day cooking, then ate it all (or at least overly large portions) in less than an hour. This is our coffee table sketched as we watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the nth time and dozed off.
Wed-24-Dec-2025
112-3316 – The tree is up
When I sketched this we had just put up our tired old tree (which we bought when we lived in Syria). As usual we festooned/overloaded it with every decoration we have including an angel made from a San-mig beer can, balls (and Rudolf) made from old light bulbs and wooden decorations given by a friend who now lives in France.
Thu-18-Dec-2025